2004 DoE review

In 2004, the United States Department of Energy was persuaded to conduct a second review of “cold fusion,” by then called “Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.” This page hierarchy will collect materials relating to the study of that review. We will begin by compiling a page with abstracts and links for every reference cited in the review paper.

The review paper was New Physical Effects in Metal Deuterides, which title is a neutral summary of the “cold fusion” claims. LENR does range a little outside that, at the fringes, but this is the original core, and specifically palladium deuteride. Our page, linked from the title here, will copy that paper and a subpage will show the Abstracts.

There is much material on lenr-canr.org on the 2004 Review. Years ago, I studied the review and critiqued it in discussions on Wikipedia. What a waste of time! I found obvious errors in the review, but it is the nature of a wiki encyclopedia project, on the Wikipedia design, that “original research,” even if very obvious, is disallowed . . . unless a strong majority of editors agree with it. So, too often, Wikipedia becomes a popularity contest. In theory, there are standards, guidelines, policies, but the enforcement is entirely dependent upon the interpretation of administrators, and the position attracts can keeps obsessives, too often. It is extremely difficult to remove abusive administrators, and, of course, administrators circle the wagons to protect their own. It’s a structural problem, built in from the beginning. The outcome was predictable, a result of lack of experience and naivete regarding consensus process.

I never attempted to put the “original research” into the cold fusion article. But the very fact that I discussed it was used as a reason for ban. . . . And that particular story gets worse before it gets better.